The Development of a Preference for Procedural Justice for Self and Others.

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Moral Development

Background:

• Adults demonstrate a strong preference for procedural justice over distributive justice.
• This preference influences social judgments and cooperation in adults.
• It remains unclear if children share similar preferences for fairness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the developmental trajectory of children's preference for procedural justice.
• To examine children's attitudes towards fairness in resource allocation tasks.
• To understand how context (first- vs. third-party, distributional outcomes) affects justice preferences.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a resource allocation task with children aged 4 to 8 years.
• Assessed children's responses in both first-party and third-party scenarios.
• Varied conditions to include procedurally just and unjust processes, with varying distributional outcomes.

Main Results:

• Children consistently attend to and prefer procedural justice over distributive justice.
• Younger children showed a reduced preference for procedural or distributive justice in first-party contexts when it conflicted with self-interest.
• Results indicate an interaction between abstract justice principles and developing self-control.

Conclusions:

• Children possess an inherent preference for procedural justice, mirroring adult tendencies.
• The development of justice preferences involves balancing abstract fairness with personal gain.
• Emerging self-regulation abilities play a crucial role in overriding selfish motivations in favor of fairness.